


Forgotten but not Gone

by Jade_Sabre



Category: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Cooper
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-04 16:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Sabre/pseuds/Jade_Sabre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Not exactly what you requested, but I did the best I could with what time I had.  I'm also afraid Bran is a bit more English than Welsh, so if that's true, my deepest apologies.  I hope you enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote>





	Forgotten but not Gone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kirax2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirax2/gifts).



> Not exactly what you requested, but I did the best I could with what time I had. I'm also afraid Bran is a bit more English than Welsh, so if that's true, my deepest apologies. I hope you enjoy it!

The Christmas holiday was so close Bran could practically taste it.  He was sitting for his last exam and doing his best to fool the moderators into thinking he was pondering his last history essay, but in reality his mind was miles away, plotting the best sledding spots in the Welsh mountains.  Dangerous, yes, but he'd promised the Drews to take them when they came to visit.  Jane hadn't sounded particularly keen on it in her last letter, which only made him all the more eager to take her.

  
  


They were finally allowed to go; a few of the students gasped and staggered their way out, while others nursed severely cramped hands.  Bran grinned to himself, sliding on his sunglasses as he stepped into the outside sunlight.  It was cold on his face, but the underlying burning sensation lingered.  A few stubborn snowflakes clung to the ground, disappearing as they were stepped on by careless passers-by.  Tomorrow he'd catch the train and--

  
  


Will Stanton was leaving the hall, brushing his hair out his eyes as he blinked up at the sun.

  
  


Bran watched as he continued to stare at the sun, as if gauging something, more worried about the fact that the bloke might blind himsef than anything else.  Apparently satisfied with what he saw, Will stuffed his hands in the pockets of his coat and set off down the street with a purposeful stride better suited to a professor headed to a lecture than a student just leaving an exam.

  
  


And that was how he _knew _it was Will, although damned if he didn't know _why _he knew or even _who _Will Stanton was.  The point was that he'd found him and was halfway down the street following before his mind could catch up to his legs.

  
  


Will ducked down one alley, then another, buildings abruptly rising to hide the sun.  The shadows were damp, and cold, and Bran was shivering sense back into his brain.  Why the devil was he following a stranger down the backalleys of Cambridge in near-freezing temperatures?  If hew knew what was good for him, he'd turn around and find--

  
  


Then Will entered a pub; Bran wasn't sure how he'd found it so quickly, but it was an all right sort of place.  Not his favorite--his collegemates preferred one around the corner from their flat--but he wouldn't pass up a drink and another glimpse to see if he could place the man.  It must have been something wild for him to follow like he had...

  
  


The pub wasn't crowded, but there were a few groups of students gathered at the tables, alternatively comparing answers or beginning to drink themselves into stupors.  He spied Will going up to the bar as a group of first-year girls spotted him.  'Bran!' one of them called, waving.

  
  


'Lily,' he answered cordially, seeing Will freeze out of the corner of his eye.  Well, at least the recognition was mutual.  'We weren't expecting you here,' the girl said, batting her eyes at him.  He'd noticed that a number of the Billy Idol fangirls had been paying him more attention lately, which always made him laugh.  First years seemed especially prone to the fawning, and he knew for a fact that Lily played the record until it drove her roommate up the wall.  'How'd it go?'

  
  


'Not bad, not bad,' he said, grinning at her.  'Listen, I--Will?'

  
  


Will's hand stopped midway towards his glass.  Judging by the look on his face, Bran suspected the man had once shagged one of his mate's girlfriends.  Well.  He'd let _him_ explain it.  All he had to do was act like he remembered, and wanted to be the bigger man.

  
  


'Bran,' Will said, his voice deep even in its reluctance.  'Fancy meeting you here.'

'Ineed.  Excuse me,' he said to Lily, going up to the bar.  'Pint please.  So,' he turned, and noticed Will still hadn't touched his drink, 'how've you been?'

  
  


'Well,' Will said finally, his eyes scanning Bran's face with boyish curiosity.  Bran wasn't sure why he noticed, aside from a vague notion that Will rarely looked boyish and anyway they were getting a little old for that.  'I've been well.  And you?'

  
  


'Oh, fine,' he said automatically, taking his pint from the bartender and swigging it.  'Just fine.  I mean, examinations lately, that's been less fine, but overall I've been well.'  Shut _up_, he told himself, you're supposed to be making _him_ babble.

  
  


'And the village?  How's your father?'

  
  


So he'd shagged one of his village mate's girlfriends.  But that didn't make any sense; he knew the people of his village like the back of his hand, and he would remember a stranger like Will.  He grinned to hide his annoyance and said, 'Oh, Dad's well.  A bit slower than he used to be, but that's normal.  I'll remember you to him at Christmas, thanks for asking.  So,' he said, shifting tactics, 'I didn't know you went here.'

  
  


'I don't.  I'm just--passing through.'  He finally took his drink, perhaps trying to hide the--Bran couldn't quite call it desperation, but maybe loneliness?

  
  


'Really?  Are you at Oxford, then?  Smart guy like you ought to be.'  Now he was guessing, and taking drinks to hide it.

  
  


Will shook his head, a faint grin of irony on his face.  'I didn't really feel like uni could teach me anything.  But Oxford's nice.  I've been there a time or two.'

  
  


'I've been down a few times.  Got a friend there, reading English.'  Bran shook his head.  'She's loony, but she loves the stuff.  Thinks I'm nuts for picking biology, but...'

  
  


'So Jane's at Oxford, then?'

  
  


Bran's eyes went wide behind his sunglasses.  This guy had shagged _Jane_?  When the hell had he been in Wales at the same time as the Drews?  Never mine the fact that he was positive Jane had never shagged anybody; oh, she smoked when she was drunk (which was only on special occasions), but for years he'd been telling her she needed a decent shag and she'd just laughed him off.  Of course, that could just be because she'd shagged this guy, instead.  And he did seem like a quiet, shy type, all mousy and brown and right up her alley.

  
  


Well, damn.  'Yeah,' he said, a littled delayed, and he wasn't sure he liked the way Will's gaze seemed to shift, a little.  'Simon's down at Bristol, and Barney's not quite sure where he's going yet, and Jane's at Oxford, yeah.'

  
  


'I'll bet she loves it,' Will said, but he looked a little disappointed, drawing into himself.  'It's been a long time since I've seen them.  I ran into Barney once, but he didn't recognize me.'

  
  


Now he did sound lonely, and Bran wasn't sure what to do, so he put his glass to his lips and said, 'Those were fun times, weren't they?'

  
  


'In the end, yeah,' Will said, watching Bran drink, his eyes going distant.  'And sometimes along the way.  Scary too.'

  
  


'Only a little bit.'  Something tugged at his mind--he didn't know what, only that he felt compelled to say, 'But I was always sure we'd come out ahead in the end.'

  
  


Will smiled.  'Yeah?'

  
  


'Yeah,' Bran said, not quite able to smile back.  He held out his glass instead, and Will clinked his to it.  The both drained their glasses and set them back on the bar, then stared at their hands.

  
  


'I didn't--' Will looked at Bran, his gaze young again '--I didn't shag Jane.'

  
  


'What?'  Startled, Bran looked back.

  
  


Will grinned.  'I ought to be going.  But do tell her I said hello, and don't mind if she doesn't remember me.'

  
  


'Right, then,' Bran said, trying to figure out how Will had figured out what he was thinking.  'Good to see you.'

  
  


'You too,' Will said, his smile still genuine, even if the rest of him was--slipping, somehow, into something old and tired.  He waved Bran's hand away and pulled out a fiver.  'I'll cover it.  After all,' and now he _was _old, and Bran was confused, 'it's not every day I get to have a drink with the Pendragon.  Good health to you,' he said, and then he was gone, leaving Bran to stand at the bar, blinking, feeling just a little--empty, as if some part of him was missing, and he would never get it back.

  
  


fin


End file.
